Cornelius, Harper and Bound Celebrate Victory at Flamboro Speedway

August 31st, 2015 Dan Little

Flamboro Speedway played host to the OSCAAR series and The Don Biederman Memorial this past weekend. With the pits full of cars the fans were treated to some great racing from all seven of the divisions in attendance.

Dickies / London Recreational Racing Outlaw Action:

The one event on the calendar that every Outlaw driver has circled is the Biederman Memorial. This years’ event saw it return to its roots at Flamboro Speedway. It was at this track the Biedeman became a household name in Ontario. Coming into this event Kevin Cornelius had never turned a competitive lap at Flamboro Speedway and was riding a perfect win streak and just to add a little more pressure was the defending champion of the Memorial event. The question on everyone’s mind even Kevin’s could he keep the streak alive?

The qualifying events for the 50 lap Memorial event would be the first order of business. Todd Campbell has turned many laps at Flamboro Speedway and used that knowledge to take the win in the first heat race of the day. Kevin Cornelius would pick up the win in heat race #2, with Flamboro veteran #39 Shane Gowan picking up his first win of the 2015 season in heat race #3. Making his return to OSCAAR competition this weekend is perhaps one of the more successful drivers at Flamboro in recent years, the #89c of Shawn Chenoweth would take heat race #4.

It seemed heading into the feature that the home track drivers would hold the advantage as the #22 of Glenn Watson and the #17 of Kevin Cornelius would lead the field to the green flag. The #17 would get the jump on the start and the battle for second would look very familiar as the #22 of Watson and the #84 of Fitzpatrick would battle side by side lap after lap for the spot. On lap 15 Fitzpatrick would finally claim the spot and set off to hunt the #17 of Cornelius down who had built up a straight away lead by then. On the move was the #89c of Chenoweth who also made the move around the #22 of Watson and the hard charging #81 of Andrew Gressel moved from his 10th starting spot into fourth. As the race passed halfway distance, the crowd were keeping an eye on the leader and the score board as the laps where quickly ticking down. Cornelius caught some lapped traffic allowing the #84 to inch ever closer until the rear view mirror was full of the #84. The two leaders put on an epic battle for the lead with Fitzpatrick doing whatever he could to get the inside line on the #17. As the white flag flew it was now or never for the #84 and he made one last ditch effort in turn three but to no avail as the #17 of Cornelius picked up the win and defended his Biederman Memorial win. Shawn Chenoweth gave it everything he had and got his first podium finish of 2015 with an impressive 3rd place. Andrew Gressel was happy to be in the Outlaw and his fourth place finish with the #22 of Watson rounding out the top five. While the celebration in victory lane was going on everyone began to talk about the fact the race took just under 18 minutes to race and not one single caution and every car was still running at the end.

The HOOSIER Mods: The fans of Flamboro Speedway only have one chance to see the OSCAAR Mods in action and the drivers ensured the fans saw some great open wheel action. With a great balance of veterans of the track and rookies, it provided some great racing action all night long.

Chris Milwain was one of the drivers with experience in a Hobby Car but being a rookie in the Mod at Flamboro, but used his experience to pick up heat race win #1 of the night. Brian McLean picked up the feature win at the previous OSCAAR Mod event and looked ready to defend with a win in heat race #2. Matt Barton also has many laps at the track behind the wheel and as a crew chief and that knowledge paid off with a win in heat #3 his first of the 2015 season. John Harper grew up coming to Flamboro Speedway and lives just down the road so the win in heat race #4 was like a home coming for the team, who was coming off his best OSCAAR career finish of second the week before.

The 30 lap feature event would be lead to green by the #63 of John Baker JR and the #2 of Matt Barton. At the drop of the green Barton and his #2 machine would set sail at the front of the field, leaving the rest of the drivers to battle it out for position. The first caution of the event would fly at the half way point as rookie driver #09 Dan Price would suffer motor problems and have to be towed back to the pits. The restart would see the #2 of Barton line up beside the #79 of John Harper with Cory Horner in the #79h in third #36 of Gary Elliott in fourth and the #26 of Terry Baker rounding out the top five at the half way point. The leaders would battle side by side for the next two laps before the #79 of John Harper would take over the leaders spot. The battle continued for second through seventh as they were all nose to tail for the final 15 laps of the feature event. With the laps winding down the #79 of Harper was in command and when the checkerflag waved it would be the Harper team celebrating in victory lane for the first time on the OSCAAR Mod Tour. Matt Barton would hold on to second place matching his career best finish with Gary Elliott returning to the podium at his home track. Rounding out the top five would be the #26 of Terry Baker and the #8 of Gary McLean.

The Mod teams now get a very well deserved weekend off before returning to Full Throttle Speedway in two weeks for round #2 of The Rick Woolner Memorial event. Shane Stickle and his #39 mod picked up the win in round one, but the overall winner will be the driver with the best combined finish of the two events. Fans will not want to miss a moment of the exciting Mod racing that weekend.

The Midas of Orangeville Midgets : Twenty six of the best in the Midget series signed in to do battle at Flamboro Speedway this past weekend. With the season winding down the points race is the closest in any series in Ontario, the drivers were ready to get down to some serious racing in front of a great crowd at Flamboro Speedway.

The qualifying heats are of the up most importance as the drivers want to start as close to the front as they can and they do not want to have to run the dreaded “B” main. Robin McLean has been running a part time schedule for the 2015 season butt when he shows up he ready to win and proved that by taking the checker flag in heat race #1 of the night. The #83 of Jamie Bound was back in action after missing the previous event and took the win in heat race #2 over his brother Jody Bound. Jamie would back that win up with a win in heat #3 making him the top qualifier of the night and being the lucky driver to draw the invert. The past few weeks would see the #57 of James Stanley becoming a fixture at the front of the fields and would pick up the win in heat race #4 of the night. With twenty five cars still in competition it was decided to start them all for the 25 feature event.

Rob Summers has been putting strong runs together this last half of the season and would lead the field to green along side the #62 of Rob McCall. The #62 of McCall would get the early jump and would lead the first 3 laps of the feature event. Moving up quickly was the #5 of Jody Bound who started 8th in the feature and took over the top spot on lap 4. The #5 of Bound was looking to rebound from a disappointing event at Grand Bend and pick up his first feature win of the season. Jody knew that if that was to happen he have to hold off his brother Jamie and his #83 machine who was quickly moving up through the field as well. On lap 14 the #83 of Bound would make his move to the lead and would go on to pick up another feature victory. The battle was then on for second place between the #5 of Bound and the #2 of Jessica James who started the feature all the way back in 20th place. The two would race side by side for lap after lap with no one giving an inch. Coming to the checker flag they were side by side coming out of turn four making a run to the line with the #5 of Bound taking the spot by inches over the #2 of James. While all this was going on the driver with the best seat in the house was the #18 of Paul Drananoc who came home fourth followed by the #53 of Dave Bradley in fifth.

The teams will now get to enjoy the labour day weekend poolside before returning to action at Full Throttle Speedway in two weeks. In the previous visit it was Jessica James that laid down the law and she will be looking to defend her race win.